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by utopiah 13 days ago
For NASA I don't know but all others that are private companies the "mission" is never "the mission". The mission is "making more money" and everything else, including the change in culture, is the result of how single focused "good" (according to the market) companies are.

I was pondering about a piece of wisdom people often say, roughly going like "Oh yes, invest in stocks, the market always goes up!" and even though technically true they forget to mention that it's the case because losers get kicked out. A company that doesn't performed is removed from the indices so sure, market goes up BECAUSE losers leave.

This isn't a moral stance by the way, just highlighting mechanisms to participate, and survive, in those environments.

1 comments

I don't know why this comment is downvoted. You raise some interesting points.

First, for-profit vs non-profit. This is a great point. I have only worked for huge for-profits orgs my whole career. On the other hand, my mother worked as a first grade teacher (teaching children to read) for 35 years. The difference in our view of the workplace is night and day: She views it as much more benevolent because other teachers are your peers and are genuinely friendly and helpful. My more grizzled view is like the jungles during Viet Nam War: Live to fight another day.

Second: Again, another good point. When most people say "the market", they usually mean one or two big indices, like Dow Jones Industrial Average, or NASDAQ 100, or S&P 500. You are right: As a result of their (mostly) rules based system to periodically re-balance the index, losers fall out and winners arrive.

Sincerely appreciate you took the time to reply and clarify.

Honestly I don't care for downvotes but I admit it's frustrating that somebody believes I'm wrong (perfectly fine! I'm wrong very VERY often.) but doesn't try to make me understand how (not fine, it's depriving me from a potential opportunity to see flaws in my reasoning or understanding).

So yes, thanks!

+9000

It is a personal vendetta of mine to upvote reasonable comments that have been downvoted without comment. It is so irritating and childish on HN. Fortunately, it is a tiny fraction of downvotes!

    > I'm wrong very VERY often.
I love you for saying this. Honestly, I am too afraid to say it myself! This is pretty much a(n) OG/GOAT comment on HN. Anyone who has "strong beliefs, but weakly held" is normally loved on HN. It is a fundamental belief of Paul Graham.